In the summer of 1969, with the incoming 8th, 9th, and 10 graders who would make up Hillsborough High School's first students yet to set foot in the new building, the school board was already announcing that the district was out of space and would need to build yet another school.
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| Hillsborough High School under construction, 1969 |
Coming up with a proposal took another year-and-a-half. In December 1970, the board revealed plans for Hillsborough's first true Middle School, to be built on a 30-acre tract at the intersection of Amwell and Pleasantview Roads. The $120,000 purchase price for the property would be part of a $4.2 million bond referendum set for March 9, 1971.
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| 8 December 1970 Courier News |
The school had an expected completion date of September 1973, just in time to save Hillsborough from having to rent classroom space from churches and the rescue squad - although the 1972-73 school year would require using the sub-standard rooms at Bloomingdale, Flagtown, and Liberty Schools.
The two-story school would be able to accommodate 1,200 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students in 38 regular classrooms, two industrial arts rooms, three science labs, two home economics rooms, two music rooms, and three practice rooms. Also included were three remedial rooms, an art room, a mechanical drafting room, a gymnasium, a library, and a cafeteria.
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| March 1971 Home News articles |
The school budget defeat in February was the first sign that the March referendum might be in trouble. Taxpayers were not very excited about the price tag - the debt service would cost the owner of an average home $8 per month - and were not happy that the board was paying twice the assessed value for the 30-acre property.
The day before the vote The Courier News published an article laying out what would likely happen if the referendum was defeated:
"The alternatives available to the board, should the middle school be defeated, are double sessions, more rented substandard facilities, additions to present schools and a year-round school system[!]. In regard to the latter, the Board of Education is considering starting such a program in grades 9-12, and if it is successful, possibly expanding it to grades 6-8. However, it warns, since it will take nearly three years to fully evaluate such a program and classrooms are needed now, this cannot postpone school construction."
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| 10 March 1971 Courier News |
Despite the dire warnings, the referendum failed by a greater than two to one margin. And so, as it was in the case of the high school seven years earlier, the school board licked their wounds and contemplated Plan B.
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